‘Some people believe that football is matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude, it is much, much more important than that.’
Bill Shankly

Monday, March 31, 2014

Greece-
slowly rising, very slowly and not all that smoothly. Most of the
league was not strong, scandals were frequent, but improvement was
noticeable. It was still the time of heroes – long lasting
veterans, who more or less elevated Greek football. They were around
since the early 1960s and made astonishing records: 4 players had
over 400 league appearances after this season. Mimis Domazos was with
490 and Mimis Papaioannou – 458. Neither was quitting yet. The
bright side had its counterpart as well – there was mid-season
players strike. The clubs fielded their foreigners – for some
reason excluded from the strike of the Greek players – and
'amateurs'. The definition is foggy – Greek football became
officially professional in 1978-79, if some sources are to be
trusted. But players were paid for long time already and the strike
was never called anything but strike of professional player. The
clubs fielded largely junior team players, luckily for only one
championship round. Records of the season specifically separate the
group of 'amateurs' used by the clubs and let leave it at that.
Corruption was also present – Veria was caught trying to fix
matches and 10 points were deducted from their record as a
punishment. One may wonder what would have happened if one of the big
clubs was found guilty... may be an meaningless question. Apart from
that, there were some good news too – the Yugoslavian striker Dusan
Bajevic joined AEK (Athens).

Bajevic,
28-years old, was one of the best Yugoslavian centre-forwards of the
1970s. National team regular for years, the star of the very strong
Velez (Mostar), prolific scorer, and part of the good Yugoslavian
team at the 1974 World Cup finals. The second real star after the
Argentinian 'La Bruja' Veron to come play in Greece. It was even a
bit strange – a player of his caliber was expected to join
stronger West European league, but a shift was slowly happening –
the Greek clubs started buying more Europeans than anonymous South
Americans: Yugoslavians, Danes, the odd West German. Foreign coaches
were continuously hired too. The top clubs at least were getting
stronger.

The
positive changes did not yet spread to lower echelons of Greek
football.

AS
Rodos won the Southern Second Division, and

AE
Larisa won the Northern Second Division. Happy to be promoted, but
neither club was strong addition to First league.

The
newcomers were replacing the unlucky outsiders of First Division:

Veria
was last with 18 points – their efforts of fixing matches were
transparent enough: to escape relegation. But even if 10 points were
not deducted from their record, Veria was still to be relegated.

AO
Pierikos (Katerini) finished 17th
with 26 points. A little unlucky, for there was large group of clubs
concerned only with survival – up to the 9th
placed. The luckiest ended with 30 points. However, the relegated
were not to be missed.

Only
one club of the bulk was obviously improving: OFI Crete.

Only
two years earlier the islanders were playing in second division.
Historically, OFI were nobodies – they had short first division
spell in the 1960s and that was all. Now they had ambition, perhaps
money, and may be good organization. Fans turning historians boast
that OFI was the club to be... young players from all Greece were
eager to join the club. Fancy imagination – no future stars of
Greek football are founded in their 1977-78 roster. Even their two
Yugoslavians are anonymous – Voukman and Ivanta (the name is
clearly changed, may be to make it easier for Greek pronouncing).
The only relatively known name is Kostas Liolios, acquired from
Olympiakos for this season. But the team was going up – they
finished 8th,
becoming one of the stable clubs.

The
bulk of the league was topped by PAS Giannina at 5th
place.

They
were running strong thanks to their large group of South Americans
and the great mystery around them: players with frequently changing
names, one year with their original ones, the next with Greek names,
called in the same time 'Argentine-Italians', something not giving
them even Greek roots, but never mind. They were for his club and
even more. Good, but not good enough to challenge the big clubs.

About Me

I am Vesselin Vesselinov, born in Bulgaria and living in Canada. Football is my hobby since childhood – not the most important part of my life, but lifelong addiction nevertheless. Playing, watching, talking and collecting football. Now I am sharing my addiction with you. Hope you enjoy it.